Author: JeremyGoertz

Okay okay, we’ve been pretty slack at updating this website lately, but all of that is changing. We’ve been busy re-vamping our YouTube presence and part of that is keeping up to date across all of our other Social Media Platforms as well. Including here.

So, with every new video that comes out, so will a new post. Also, I’ll try and get a better write on each post with some additional photos. Thanks for tuning in!

In setting up a useful shop, one of the early tools that should be considered would be a decent bench vise. Regardless of what you plan on doing in your shop, in most instances you will find a bench vise to be an incredibly valuable tool. It’s a tool that will be equally as useful to a person just getting starting in there fixing, building, making journey as it is to a master craftsman who has years of experience. Yup, I think bench vises are awesome.

We made an announcement last week on our YouTube channel that we’re doing another give away to mark a milestone for the channel. 50,000 Subscribers! Now, at the time of this post we’re not there yet, but we did announce what would be given away once we reach that mark.

Sweet prizes!

First item will be the knife maker’s sanding block that I sell, and the second is actually a sponsored prize from Oneida, the company that makes the Dust Deputy. They have been so kind to add a Dust Deputy complete kit to the give away.

So once we’re reached 50K on the channel, we will make the video saying “Comment below to win” and all you have to do is be a subscriber, and leave a comment on that video and you’re entered. The sanding block will ship anywhere on earth, the Dust Deputy will ship only to a winner that lives in either Canada or the USA. (This is strictly due to the high cost of shipping such a large box overseas).

Thank you so much for all of your support and keep an eye out for the announcement video and make sure you get in on it! It’s just a little way for us to say thank you.

Winter. It’s cold and dark (at least for those of us in the Northern part of the Northern Hemisphere). Working outside at this time of year often means working in the dark. That being the case, I’m a huge fan of flashlights. I probably have 40 of them. But not all lights are created equal. Especially when it comes to hard everyday use. Most of the lights that you can pick up at the big box stores store just won’t last very long when you’re using them hard everyday.

About a month and a half ago I was contacted by ZanFlare, a new flashlight company, and they asked if they could send me their F1 flashlight to test out and review. I’v been beating on this light and using it hard and I have to say that I am very impressed. For the full info, check out the review on my YouTube channel.

ZanFlare is currently selling their lights on gearbest.com and they have offered a coupon code for followers of this blog and viewers of my YouTube channel. The F1 sells for $39.99 USD but if you use the coupon code simple at checkout, you will receive $5 off! Hot Deals!

The list was released as a “holiday gift guide” on my YouTube channel but since it’s a list of other recommended YouTube channels and not a list of stuff to try and get under the tree before Christmas morning, I figured it’d be fine to save this one for a little later on to post to the blog.

Anyway, here is a very condensed list of some YouTube channels that I really enjoy. Keep in mind this list is incredibly abbreviated as there are so many great people sharing what they do on Youtube. But, for a quick place to start, here are some you may have heard of and maybe some you’ve never seen before. Check them out and enjoy!

Winter is fully here in Southern Alberta and lately we’ve seen temps dip to below -20C (-4F). Put these cold temperatures with an uninsulated shipping container for a shop, and knife making just got a whole lot more challenging. Or maybe just slow. It typically takes about an hour of good stoke on the fire before it’s warm enough to start working in the knife shop. And when I say warm enough I’m talking about 10 degrees C and warmer. Any colder than that and it just is too hard on my hands. Maybe I’m getting a bit sensitive as I’m getting older but holding onto a piece of steel that’s just above freezing for any amount of time is just painful. After about 3 hours I can get that little shipping container to above 20C (68F) and that is just a fine temperature for making knives.

I recently had a custom knife ordered and the person who ordered it thought it would be cool to have a video made of their knife being made. Since they live in the Southern US, I thought it would be cool to show them the cold conditions that their knife started out in.

Last week I posted a video on YouTube and the response was overwhelming. Since then I’ve been playing catch up on making these little sanding blocks, and I’m now getting to shipping them out to customers. I still have them on homesteadknives.com and they are set up to allow back order. Right now I’m 3 behind in production, but I’ll be cranking out about another 30 or so in the next week.

Thanks to everyone who ordered and they are on their way to you! Your support is sincerely appreciated.

Pretty stoked to reach this milestone over on the YouTube channel. Honestly I’ve been putting most of my social media focus on YouTube (and sadly at the expense of blogging here) but I suppose you can only do so much. I like the video communication, and so far it’s going fairly well.

Way back when I had about 2K subscribers, I announced a contest for a knife giveaway that would happen once I reach 20K subscribers. Well this past weekend we hit 20K and now the GAW is open. Check out the video for all the details.

Well, the boys almost had a qualifying ride on the wild pony races. We are really proud of them and every go round they did, they got better and better and closer and closer to getting a ride in. Certainly made improvements over the weekend. What a blast!